Pittsburgh's Own Fountain of Youth

by Shades FamJune 28, 2017

You’ve heard a lot from our Uncle Jerry, and from some guy named Muz (our Founder & CEO), but I thought it might be time to get a little bit of a female voice on this site. I was recently in a presentation for my day job – some research company telling us the latest stats on the U.S. population – and was shocked to hear that women now make up 51% of this great country. We’re no longer the minority, technically. A pretty cool stat at a pretty cool time when ceilings are being broken and roles are being redefined on all playing fields thanks to women like Sheryl Sandberg and Indra Nooyi and so many others.

As a young girl growing up in Pittsburgh, I knew just as much about baseball – the rules of the game, who Andy Van Slyke was, what Sid Bream did to us Pirate fans – as the boy sitting next to me in first grade. Pittsburgh isn’t a place where loving sports knows genders. It’s a town where you play on the same tee ball team as your brother and if you want to play football at lunch with the boys, you play football at lunch with the boys…. And grass stain your new powder blue dress to intercept the QB who happens to be your third-grade crush.

It was a great way to grow up and probably helped to instill in me the confidence I have as an adult female – the confidence I took to my first job out of college in New York City working for one of the major sports leagues…. A very male-dominated industry. I came in knowing that I had skills to contribute, knowing that I brought value to the table, but I was also lucky to have a few extremely strong women mentors. These women helped nurture that confidence and also provided me with small bits of advice that really helped shape me as a professional. Ever since, it’s been important to me to do the same for the young women I have a chance to cross paths with.

As I’ve gotten older, I’ve realized that what makes any company, any brand a force to be reckoned with is when leaders value differences among their workforce. Gender, race, age, background, socio-economic status, education – all of these factors bring different viewpoints to the table; Viewpoints that can save a brand from making critical errors.

When Muz brought me onboard, he did so because I brought a different set of skills to Shades on Point, along with a different set of experiences and new points of view. As we’ve expanded, we’ve added new voices and opinions, all to help us connect with different parts of our consumer base in authentic ways. But everyone we’ve brought in has one very important thing in common – a love for our great city and a pride for being from Pittsburgh.

With that, I’m excited to announce that this is the first edition of a new weekly blog – one that brings a bit of a different tone to the site than Uncle Jerry and Muz. Our regular contributors to this blog are two dynamic, college-aged professionals who love fashion and working out as much as they love brunch and tacos. They bring a young, hip, female vibe to our company… one we’ve desperately been craving! The blog will be unique each week, exploring whatever is top of mind and relevant to our female consumers. Think of it as our way of passing along some bits of advice, tips on what’s new and cool or maybe just something that’s motivated us that week that we think could resonate with other women out there.

In addition to our key contributors’ regular posts, we plan to have guest bloggers – notable women who have their own view of Pittsburgh; their own thoughts to share.

And with that, I hope you enjoyed the very first edition of Fountain of Youth – named for the Fountain at the Point of our city, this blog will be your female-delivered source for how to stay young, playful, wise and timeless in the Steel City. This was just a short introduction… there’s some great content scheduled for next week! If you ever have a suggestion for a something you want us to write about, or a guest blogger, let us know. And don’t worry, I’m still letting Uncle Jerry and Muz write for you – just squeezing in a little useful knowledge in between their posts… kidding, boys.